My second visit to the Courtauld Gallery was made to see the
Sir Peter Lely exhibition and to have another look at some Kandinsky and
Seurat. A concession still costs £4.50
as it had earlier in the year and a companion goes in free. (http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2012/peter-lely/index.shtml)
The Lely exhibition has a selection of Lely pictures before
he became a society painter in the Restoration period of King Charles II. The
theme is essentially Arcadia and shows the development of Lely’s style. Many of the themes are classical or biblical
and included another Rape of Europa. (http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/veronese-rape-of-europa-art-through.html)
The Rape of Europa, early 1650s
Peter Lely (1618-80)
Oil on canvas, 123.3 x 135 cm
Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth
I first became aware of Lely’s portraits when I visited Ham
House, near Richmond in Surrey. His
painting of Elizabeth Murray (Countess of Dysart in her own right) has haunting
eyes (http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1139764)
and I swore I could recognise the eyes Lely painted from these visits in the
late 1970s.
In the summer I had visited the Scottish National Portrait
Gallery and noted the portrait of Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale by Lely.
The Countess of Dysart had married the Duke of Lauderdale (Scottish seat
is Thirlestane Castle near Lauder, mentioned in my post on Soutra Aisle: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/soutra-medieval-medicine-meets-windfarm.html
)
I was alerted to the Lely exhibition by a tweet and put it
on the list of things to do. A friend
came with me and we noted a few of the pictures we discussed.
The Finding of Moses
Musee des Beaux. Arts, Rennes
Reuben Presenting Mandrakes to Leah
Courtauld Gallery
The Rape of Europa
Chatsworth House Trust(shown above)
Nymphs by a Fountain
Dulwich Picture Gallery
A Boy as a Shepherd
Dulwich Picture Gallery(shown below)
Boy as a Shepherd, c. 1658-60
Peter
Lely (1618-80)
Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 69 cm
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Man Playing a Pipe
Tate
The Concert
Courtauld Gallery(shown below)
The Concert, c. 1650
Peter Lely (1618-80)
Oil on canvas, 123.1 x 234 cm
The Courtauld Gallery, London
A Pair of Lovers in a Landscape
Musee des Beaux. Arts, Valenciennes
Portrait of Sir Thomas Thyme
Courtauld Trust
Portrait of a Woman
Courtauld Trust
Cimon and Ifigenia
Mr & Mrs James Birch
There is a catalogue on sale for £25 and I bought 4
postcards.
After the Lely exhibition we visited a small show of Lucien
Freud etchings which had been given to the Courtauld by Auerbach. I had missed the Lucien Freud exhibition when
it was on at the National Portrait Gallery, though I had not shown particular interest
in going to it at the time.
We wandered through the first and second floors and renewed
acquaintances with some of the pictures including:
Church Tower (around 1919)
Marianne Werefkin(1860-1938)Private collection
This reminded me of the church in Murnau by Kandinsky, which
I had seen in the Symbolist Landscape exhibition in Edinburgh during the summer.
Kallmunz, 1903
KandinskyPrivate collection
On the Theme of the Last Judgement (1913)
KandinskyFridart Foundation
The Red Circle
KandinskyPrivate collection
Many thanks to Jenni Lloyd from Sue Bond Public Relations (www.suebond.co.uk) for sending me the three photographs shown in this post. Jenni also very kindly sent me the text of the wall panels. Thanks also to the staff at the Courtauld Gallery for coming back to me after my visit.
By a stroke of serendipity or even synchronicity the CD
review programme on BBC Radio 3 on this day had included a new issue of
recorder music. Details taken from the
BBC Radio 3 website are as follows:
Una
follia di Napoli
Maurice Steger (direction, recorder)
HARMONIA MUNDI HMC902135 (CD + DVD)
Maurice Steger (direction, recorder)
HARMONIA MUNDI HMC902135 (CD + DVD)
This comes very close to a concert party and the CD has
arrived (Thursday 15th November and sounds terrific.)
My first visit to the Courtauld is noted below.
12th July 2012
The Courtauld Gallery takes up the Strand
side (North side) of Somerset House.
I had seen some of the pictures years ago, though not long
after I lost my sight I was taken to the Gilbert Collection which was then
housed in Somerset House (South Side).
Somerset House (http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/) was once the domain of bureaucrats and has
been transformed following years of neglect and misuse. Anthony Trollope refers to clerks who entered
employment at Somerset House aged 16 and “retired” as clerks aged 60 (Talking
Book Miss Mackenzie).
My previous trip was when I was new to using a cane and I found the steps and courtyard difficult to negotiate. The whole site had been a large car park and houses an area for performances and a skating rink in the winter.
My previous trip was when I was new to using a cane and I found the steps and courtyard difficult to negotiate. The whole site had been a large car park and houses an area for performances and a skating rink in the winter.
I went with a friend to the Courtauld Gallery and the
admission concession is £4.50 with the companion going free.
The building is very attractive inside once you are off the Strand . If you
can, climb the magnificent stairway to the top.
(We took the lift down) and at the top, look down. With my peripheral vision I could make out a
spiral of rectangular shapes with some eccentricity of an ellipse and a very
stretched spiral. Chambers had designed
this stairway fitting it in to the available space. It is not as pretty as the GoMA stairway in Glasgow
The rooms are very pleasing with plaster work and ceiling
paintings. The Courtauld is a collection
of collections though quite different from the Wallace Collection. The latter bears the stamp of Sir Richard
Wallace, whereas the Courtauld has continued to be developed from the original
triumvirate of Courtauld, Lee and Witt.
Samuel Courtauld left his own “personal” collection and the Institute
which is part of the University
of London
I was aware that I would find many old friends from art
appreciation days and various talks. Reference is often made to the Courtauld
usually of the “You will find another one at the Courtauld” variety.
I have listed some of the artworks which were either known
to me or had been mentioned in some talk or lecture. With
my peripheral vision I had difficulty in making much out of the Rubens. It could have been the lighting and the
themes as I enjoyed Rubens Het Steen in the National Gallery and the Rainbow in
the Wallace. The glare from the bright
natural light combined with room lighting and reflective glass made “viewing”
awkward. My friend thought the same.
We had no problems with the Impressionists and I was able to
recognise most of them. The delightful
pair of cassone (marriage chests) are elegantly displayed much as an IKEA
flatpack had been disassembled. All the
panels were on view and the pair is unique. We had discussed the panel of Piero di Cosimo
in an ‘Art through Words’ session at the National Gallery.
Having learned so many things at the sessions for visually
impaired people at the National Gallery and other galleries, it was fun trying
out a gallery with so many genres.
The items I enjoyed are listed below - though not
recognising all of them instantly with the exception of Van Gogh, Cranach,
Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro and the ballet figures of Degas. I have made a few comments we discussed
between ourselves and with some other visitors.
Georges Seurat
The Bridge at CourbevoieThe Woman Powdering Herself (1888-90)
Paul Gauguin
Nevermore (1897)Vincent Van Gogh
Peach Trees in Flower
Edouard Manet
A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
Renoir
La Loge (1874)
Monet
Antibes (1888)White, pink and blue
Cezanne
The Lac d’AnnecyThe Card Players
Francesco Guardi
Venice: a view of Realto Bridge (1768)
Alan Ramsay
Portrait of Captain Sir William Peere Williams (1750s)
Pieter Bruegel The Elder
Landscape with the flight into Egypt
Van Dyck
Ecco Homo (1622/3)
Rubens
Religious and classical themes. The lighting was not ideal. stuff
Lucas Cranach 1
Adam and Eve (1526)An amusing incident. My companion was reading out the caption and on saying that Adam was scratching his head, two women commented that they had not noticed that. (Ways of Seeing)
Zanobi di Domenico, Jacopo del Sellaio and Biagio di Antonio
Cassone (The Morelli Chest)These cassone are beautifully laid out with the rear panel on show and the lid raised in order to show off all the paintings.
Sketches are on show on the very top floor. This is an exhibition ‘From Mantegna to
Matisse’ On occasions the meticulous drawings are clearer than the end
result. The lighting was also suitable
for my vision.
Durer
The Emperors Charlemagne and Sigismund (1507-10)
Rembrandt van Rijn
Two men in discussion (1641)
Vincent Van Gogh
A Tile Factory (1888)
Pieter Bruegel The Elder
A storm in the River Scheldt with a view of Antwerp
Pieter Janz. Saenredam
The South Ambulatory of St BavokerkHaarlem, 1634
Gianlorenzo Bernini
The Louvre, East Façade 1664
John Roberts Cozens
Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome (1780)
Canaletto
A view from Somerset Gardens Looking towards
The Post Impressionist section is on show on the top floor
and the artists which I liked and have become familiar with are well
represented.
Georges Seurat
Female Nude 1879-81
Kandinsky
Kallmunz 1903Heinrich Campendonk
The Dream 1913
Friend of Kandinsky and belonged to same circle: der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider)
Kandinsky
On the theme of the Last Judgement 1913Improvisation on Mahogany
Max Pechstein
Women by the Sea 1919
Maurice de Vlaminck
Fishermen at Argenteuil 1906
Georges Braque
The Port of L’Estaque 1906
Raoul Dufy
July 14 at Le Havre 1905
Andre Derain
Fishermen at Collioure
Francis Bacon
Study for a portrait of Van Gogh VI 1957
Edvard Munch
Self-portrait 1902
Over the river at Bankside the Tate Modern Gallery has a
show of Munch with many self portraits.
Pissarro
Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich 1871La Place Lafayette 1883
I had admired Pissarro when the Paris by Night was discussed
in ‘Art through Words’. On that occasion
the National Gallery made tactile diagrams with perspective lines. This helped in fixing the geometry in some
Impressionist works. I had later gone to
the Clark exhibition on at Royal Academy which had many Pissarros.
Cezanne
Tall trees at the Jas de Bouffan around 1883Farm in Normandy around 1992
Note: The access is a bit tricky once the Somerset House
complex has been reached. The gallery
entrance is to the right of the drive way with the gift and book shop on the
left hand side. There are lower floors
accessible by lift for lavatories.
I bought a catalogue of the collection and the following two
postcards:
Camille Pissarro : Lordship Lane Station, Dulwich, 1871
Oil on canvas44.5 x 72.5 cm
Georges Pierre Seurat: Man in a boat, c. 1884
Oil on canvas15 x 24 cm
